In Vietnam for APEC, Bush talks on Iraq "history has a long march to it,"

[rodeodance]

I think bush still thinks he will go down in the History books as the great commander in chief!=====and he says this while in Vietman!!


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061117/ts_nm/apec_dc

In Vietnam for APEC, Bush talks on Iraq

By Grant McCool 1 hour, 42 minutes ago

HANOI (Reuters) - U.S.
President George W. Bush began a visit to former foe Vietnam with talks about Iraq -- another unpopular war -- as Pacific rim leaders gathered in Hanoi on Friday for a summit on trade and security issues.


Thousands of Vietnamese, some smiling, some impassive, lined the streets as Bush swept by on his motorcade and into a lunch meeting with Iraq war ally, Australian Prime Minister John Howard.

"They spent a lot of time talking about the war on terror, particularly what's ongoing in Iraq," White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters.
.........

He said the failed war in Vietnam 30 years ago showed deep divisions can be healed in time.

"My first reaction is, history has a long march to it, and that societies change and relationships can constantly be altered for good," Bush said after his lunch with Howard.

[Greeby]

1. What would you know about marching?

Champaign unit fly-boy deserter :eyes:

[saigon68]

6. "FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[bullimiami]

2. these bastards are always poking someone in the eye with a key phrase or

symbol.

first they post the wrong and offensive s viet flag on the wh website, now he brings up 'long march' in a speech in vietnam.
he (or his speech writers and rove) never pass up an opportunity to antagonize or offend.

[Dhalgren]

3. "The Long March"? Bush is alluding to "The Long March"? So is

he giving a covert wink to the Chinese Communists? Doesn't he realize that the Chinese are the Vietnamese's traditional enemies? This guy is a laughing-stock! :rofl:

[Canuckistanian]

37. First the flag, now the "Long March" comment

What is Bush really saying? Actually, given his ignorance of world affairs, he probably doesn't have a clue himself.

[Rose Siding]

4. AP has an jaw dropping lede-

In Vietnam, Bush speaks on Iraq
President says past conflict offers lessons for 'great struggle' in Iraq

HANOI, Vietnam - President Bush said Friday the United States’ unsuccessful war in Vietnam three decades ago offered lessons for the American-led struggle in Iraq. “We’ll succeed unless we quit,” Bush said shortly after arriving in this one-time war capital.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15742536/

"See, we coulda whipped you folks iffn' we'd kept just kept at it, say, sent in TANG for istance. heh heh" Unbelievable.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. The big fool said to push on

http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/snd/waistdeep.html

...
The Sergeant said, "Sir, with all this equipment
No man will be able to swim."
"Sergeant, don't be a Nervous Nellie,"
The Captain said to him.
"All we need is a little determination;
Men, follow me, I'll lead on."
We were -- neck deep in the Big Muddy
And the big fool said to push on.
...

Pete Seger

[The Count]

8. Right, W, it offered lessons, but you missed them. Again. Go to your corner.

I suppose these will be famous last words, to me remembered - and learned from. "See, kids, this is what happens when unelected morons grab power"

And yeah, the enormity of saying THIS to the Vietnamese is beyond words...

[Canuckistanian]

38. "No, no, you guys go and push on. I'll wait here in Texas"

"I've got, um, some other priorities to take care of.

[rodeodance]

7. He only reads the 'Great Men' history books

[LynnTheDem]

9. How. Fucking. Embarrassing.

NOT MY PRESIDENT.

What an incredibly stupid dipshit he is.

[LibertyLover]

10. Suppose someone should tell him that he's in the wrong country

for using a good Long March reference?

[tabasco]

11. How did you get to the front of the line to get in the champagne unit

Chimpie?? There were hundreds of men on that waiting list to get into the Texas ANG unit that Bush got into.

How about explaining how you moved straight to the front of the line, Mr. Coward Bush?

SOMEBODY WENT TO VIETNAM IN BUSH'S PLACE IN THE VIETNAM WAR.

BUSH & HIS DADDY SUBVERTED THE SYSTEM TO GET JUNIOR INTO THE GUARD !

I am an Army combat vet (not Vietnam) and I have utter contempt for chickenhawk Bush and his history "lessons."

YOU ARE A MURDERER, BUSH.

[Demonaut]

12. maybe we would have won if you'd only gone.............

lol, just kidding

[JawJaw]

13. Its A Long March To Club Gitmo

Start walking -you pathetic excuse for a President.

[The Count]

14. learned the right lesson from the election too:

“The elections mean the American people want to know if we have a plan for success.

[mainer]

15. What does he think "victory" in Vietnam would've looked like?

Sorta like what Vietnam is today? But without a few hundred thousand more dead?

Okay, so we "lost" in Vietnam. And now they're friendly, they want to trade with us, they've discovered the benefits of capitalism, and they're at peace.

Maybe "defeat" in Vietnam was really victory. But if we'd kept fighting, the country could very well look like ... Iraq.

[uppityperson]

16. Bush compares U.S. wars in Vietnam, Iraq

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151AP_Bush.html

HANOI, Vietnam -- President Bush, on his first visit to a country where America lost a two-decade-long fight against communism, said Friday the Vietnam War's lesson for today's confounding Iraq conflict is that freedom takes time to trump hatred.

Embracing a former enemy that remains communist but is allowing capitalism to surge, Bush opened a four-day stay here that was fueling an already raging debate over his war policy. Democrats who won control of Congress say last week's elections validate their call for U.S. troops to start coming home soon, while Bush argues - as he did again Friday - for patience with a mission he says can't be ended until Iraq can remain stable on its own.

A baby boomer who came of age during the turbulent Vietnam era and spent the war stateside as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, the president called himself amazed by the sights of the one-time war capital. He pronounced it hopeful that the United States and Vietnam have reconciled differences after a war that ended 31 years ago when the Washington-backed regime in Saigon fell....
(clip)

"It's just going to take a long period of time for the ideology that is hopeful - and that is an ideology of freedom - to overcome an ideology of hate," Bush said after having lunch at his lakeside hotel with Australian Prime Minister John Howard, whose country has been one of America's strongest allies in Iraq, Vietnam and other conflicts.

(more@lik)

Indeed Mr.bush, it will take a long time to overcome the ideology of hate that you and your evil minions have spread in the world. I have hope that someday the Iraqis will forgive my children for your crimes.

[ixion]

17. IOKIYAR to compare:

• Iraq to Vietnam.
  
• The Nazis to whatever
  
• Dems and progressives to Terrorists
  

HOWEVER, if you're a dem or progressive or indenpendent and you compare Iraq to Vietnam, or call out rethugs for the fascist bastards that they are, you're called a crazy left-winger, or some such ilk.

It's plain as day, and yet so many people fail to see it. :crazy:

[aquart]

18. As usual, George didn't do his homework.

Asian religions are pretty much forgiveness-based. Buddhists know their enemies will be reborn as cockroaches they can step on. Followers of Confucianism and other contemplative faiths just don't spend their time brooding over their wrongs.

The Middle East doesn't work that way. They hold grudges for centuries.

And freedom is not an ideology. Jeesh!

[davhill]

19. If we hadn't stayed the course in Viet Nam

It would not be a free country today...oh wait!

[uppityperson]

20. "Today the Vietnamese people are at peace and seeing the benefits of reform."

The president's welcome by the public was much less enthusiastic than the rock-star treatment afforded President Clinton when he came in 2000. Happy crowds thronged Clinton, who normalized relations with Vietnam. But Bush encountered a country where many with long memories deeply disapprove of the U.S. invasion of Iraq - even as they yearn for continued economic progress to stamp out still-rampant poverty. With all traffic halted, many Hanoi residents gaped at his long motorcade from their motorbikes. Other clusters of onlookers gathered before storefronts, a few waving but most merely looking on impassively.

Huynh Tuyet, 71, a North Vietnamese veteran who had his hand blown off fighting the Americans, recalled his own lesson. "Even though the Americans were more powerful with all their massive weapons, the main factor in war is the people," he said. "The Vietnamese people were very determined. We would not give up. That's why we won."

[MrScorpio]

21. Bush Compares Iraq war to Vietnam war... IN Vietnam

By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer 2 minutes ago

HANOI, Vietnam -
President Bush, on his first visit to a country where America lost a two-decade-long fight against communism, said Friday the Vietnam War's lesson for today's confounding Iraq conflict is that freedom takes time to trump hatred.

Embracing a former enemy that remains communist but is allowing capitalism to surge, Bush opened a four-day stay here that was fueling an already raging debate over his war policy. Democrats who won control of Congress say last week's elections validate their call for U.S. troops to start coming home soon, while Bush argues — as he did again Friday — for patience with a mission he says can't be ended until Iraq can remain stable on its own.

A baby boomer who came of age during the turbulent Vietnam era and spent the war stateside as a member of the Texas Air National Guard, the president called himself amazed by the sights of the one-time war capital. He pronounced it hopeful that the United States and Vietnam have reconciled differences after a war that ended 31 years ago when the Washington-backed regime in Saigon fell.

"My first reaction is history has a long march to it, and societies change and relationships can constantly be altered to the good," Bush said after speeding past signs of both poverty and the commerce produced by Asia's fastest-growing economy.

clip

"We'll succeed," Bush added, "unless we quit."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061117/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush

[sandrakae]

22. Oh like he would fucking know. He wasn't even in Vietnam. The Damn Draft Dodger.

[MrScorpio]

23. "We'll succeed," Bush added, "unless we quit."

That man is a master orator, isn't he?

:sarcasm:

[Parche]

24. bush

That is like flying to Hiroshima and saying "We reserve the right to launch nucular bunker busters against Iran"

[babylonsister]

25. Is that anywhere near a master embarrassment? nt

[eppur_se_muova]

26. Sometimes, context is everything. nt

[daleo]

27. Here is an alternative lesson

1 - U.S. quits Viet Nam
2 - A generation later, Viet Nam has fastest growing economy in Asia

1 - U.S. quits Iraq
2 - A generation, Iraq has...

[Martin Eden]

28. Exactly.

Bush is too stupid to realize the parallel he draws is an argument AGAINST his policy in Iraq.

[arewenotdemo]

39. bwa-ha-ha

TOO FUCKING GOOD.

[FastHorizon]

30. .

China has the fastest growing economy in Asia

[daleo]

34. From the article

"For decades you had been torn apart by war," Bush said in a state banquet salute to Asia's fastest growing economy. "Today the Vietnamese people are at peace and seeing the benefits of reform."

I imagine this varies from year to year, though.

[Tracer]

29. "a long march" ...

... Did his speechwriters insert a reference to "The Long March" (the rout of the communists by Chiang Kai Shek) to infer that Vietnamese communism will be routed eventually also?

[sutz12]

32. If they did that, they screwed up.....no suprise there.

The Communist Chinese view the Long March as a heroic tale of survival, much like we view Valley Forge. To refer to that episode would be to infer that Communism will prevail. Of course, Shrub doesn't have that historicalness gene anyway.

[sutz12]

31. No sense at all...

The man thinks "irony" describes the condition of his shirt.

[yellowcanine]

33. How would he know? Vietnam was just a word on the news when he was

tanked up and strung out on cocaine in early seventies. And it is doubtful that he has done much to fill in the gaps since then.

[lpbk2713]

35. I wonder what the Jane Fonda bashers think about their AWOL Monkey-Boy now?

When it was his time to serve he ran like a scared rabbit (just like he did right after the WTC was hit). And now he wants to parade through Hanoi like he's some kind of damn hero.

[Judi Lynn]

36. Considering the cretins who would look UP to him, he probably does seem

godlike! There are some very disturbed folks who've lived among the more normal ones, probably staying in the basement of their parents' homes, like the unibomber anthrax freeper, little 39 yr. old Chad Conrad Castagna.



Behold their leader, also a mommie/daddy
hanger-on, a lad who's afraid to grow up.
His "history has a long march to it," quip is close to the most irritating thing he has ever said. As a reply, someone should ask him, "Who cares what you think?"